No book in the personal care industry has stood the test of time like Harry’s Cosmeticology. First published in 1954, over the years it has become widely regarded as the source for all things related to cosmetic chemistry. The ninth edition of Harry’s Cosmeticology was published earlier this year with industry veteran Meyer Rosen serving as editor-in-chief.

“We’ve been getting excellent feedback; it is the new go-to book in the industry; but it would be more accurate to call it a trilogy, it’s not just a single book,” Rosen explained.

The ninth edition comes 12 years after publication of the eighth edition. According to the book’s publisher, Chemical Publishing, the ninth edition goes far beyond all previous editions with its greatly expanded size and coverage of many new subject areas that are of great interest in today’s global cosmetic and personal care arena. The depth and weight of the ninth edition even surprised its editor, who noted that what was once a two-year project turned into 3.5 years.

“The more people I spoke with, the more suggestions I received and the more experts I was referred to,” recalled Rosen, who pointed out that the ninth edition features the work of more than 150 experts from around the world and from a variety of disciplines, including dermatology, chemistry and marketing.

He enlisted the aid of a wide range of cosmetic industry experts to create the ninth edition. For example, Happi columnist Navin M. Geria, a principal with Doctors Skin Prescription, edited the sections devoted to anti-aging. And what may be Harry’s first father-son team, Geria’s son, Dr. Aanand N. Geria MD, contributed a section on skin of color.

“[The project] kept getting bigger and bigger; I had to make sure that I covered everything with the right expert. People have to know how the industry is different today compared to 12 years ago,” observed Rosen.

Then and Now

He noted that with breakthroughs in genetics, epigenetics and biochemistry, as well as growing consumer demand, the need to develop approaches that truly fulfill the longing to be young again represents the real opportunity to the cosmetics industry.
“If you put aside the regulatory restrictions that separate a cosmetic from a drug, this industry is doing work at a biological level,” Rosen insisted. “If you are going to be part of the next generation working on the cosmetics that people need, you need to know molecular biology.”

The future, Rosen said, will include an emphasis on personalized care. He noted that in countries such as Brazil, and on continents such as Africa, the genetic makeup of the population is so diverse that creating the right skin care treatment requires a new level of thinking and formulation.

“We need new kinds of products that are individualized to each consumer’s needs,” he said.

The ninth edition of Harry’s Cosmeticology is published in three volumes. Volume 1 includes sections on marketing, regulatory and substrates. Volume 2 is divided into ingredients and fundamentals of anti-aging, while Volume 3 includes sections on formulation, sensory characterization, delivery systems, nutracosmetics, nanocosmetics, testing, sustainability and eco-responsibility, cosmetic manufacturing processes and packaging.

It’s been 12 years since the eighth edition of Harry’s Cosmeticology was published, but Rosen is convinced that the ninth edition has the legs to stand on its own for at least 20 years.

“The eighth edition included all the basic information that one would need if he or she was entering the field or getting transferred into a new area in the cosmetics industry. The ninth edition updates all of that information and I could have stopped there, but it wasn’t enough for me,” Rosen recalled. “I challenged the authors to tell me what they believe is extremely promising technology that must be taught to the reader. They took up that challenge.”

Looking Ahead

The result is pioneering sections in the trilogy where the far-thinking authors suggest where beauty business executives and researchers should be looking next, not today or tomorrow, but 10 or 20 years out to drive the industry forward. Now, Rosen is challenging industry experts to tell him even more. He’s urging Harry’s Cosmeticology readers to tell him what subjects should be focused on for, well, focus books.

These focus publications, each about 100 pages or so, are devoted to individual subjects that have been extracted from Harry’s Cosmetology’s 2,600 pages. Thus far, there are focus books planned on epigenetics and molecular biology, regulations, marketing in difficult countries or regions, sustainability and more, according to Rosen.